Day 39 -Tuesday 11 June - Pantheon & churches

Tuesday 11 June

It was 10:00 before we got away, on a slightly cooler morning than we've had for ages.  We followed the google lady and annoyed her when we went past the Trajan's Market site (but we didn't pay E16 to go in).

Down some stairs and round the corner and we were at the big central Piazza Venezia and Trajan's column.

We had seen it from across the piazza last time, and wanted to look more closely, so we walked around and looked at its surroundings (Trajan's forum),

before moving on according to our lady, and it wasn't long before we were at the door which we thought last time was the Pantheon.

This time we walked past it, and kept walking for a couple more minutes, before we finally hit the Piazza della Rotondo, and found what we had missed.  We joined the steadily moving queue, and it wasn't long before we were in.

It is still used as a church, but not much reverence among the crowd.  It's just an amazing building, that its roof is still there after 2000 years.

So we wandered down towards the river, past another hole in the ground full of  old bits.

 Across the river is the suburb of Trastevere, which is supposed to be a bit Bohemian, with pretty green streets and little eating places.  I thought we could walk around for a bit and find a cheap cafe, but we crossed back again in the direction of the colosseum, and found a cart selling bread rolls, which we ate on a grassy bank near a church.  Then we went over a bit of a hill, and there was the Circus Maximus.  I don't know how much running was done there, but I walked almost the length of the track before reaching the fence that blocked off the ruins.

We crossed another road, and climbed another hill past another church,

 Santi Giovanni e Paolo

through another park, but it was only 14:30, so we had time to lie on a park bench before going on to San Stefano Rotondo, the first circular church building in Rome (450s AD).  It looked like it would be magnificent, but at the moment it is full of scaffolding and all its frescos are boarded up and fabric copies hanging in front.  This is because the new metro line is going underneath the Caelian Hill, and the vibrations from the excavations might damage the church.  It will be back to normal in a year's time.

The stoning of Stephen.  This church is also named for King Stephen of Hungary, and so is known as the Hungarian Church.

So from there it was back down the hill to San Clemente's church.  This site started off as Roman housing, and the mint of C1 Rome.  By C2 these had been adapted for use as a temple for Mithras.  At the end of C4, the site was filled in and St Clement's basilica was built on top, and again in C12 the current church was built. 

You can go down through these lower levels, see frescos etc on the higher, and see the little stream that was the water source for the Roman site still flowing underneath the lot.  David was cross that no photos were allowed, so he wouldn't pay the E10 to go down, but I did,

and met our old Bulgarian friends, Cyril and Methodius.

After that we walked back to the Colosseum, and caught the train home.